Winter retail with Timpanys

For many businesses on the high street and online, winter retail can be very challenging. While heavy discounting continues into the first few weeks of the new year, this busy period is sharply replaced by a slow down. How can businesses get prepared for such sharp contrast? What can they do in the meantime, while sales are coming in drips? Here are some thoughts from Timpanys founder, Antonia Timpany, a luxury designer resale boutique. Check out our interview to find out more about the business here.

For some retail stores I believe January can be a bit of bleak month. Interestingly, at Timpanys we find it a very busy time. This is because we hold a huge 50% sale. I have a very “get rid” attitude so the prices of amazing designer pieces are slashed to rock bottom prices for one week only. Our customers love it as there are some amazing bargains on offer and everyone has a lot of fun with it, some come back and shop it two or three times over the week. This year, it was our first sale in the new store location so I was apprehensive that it would not be as busy. I spent a lot on marketing it and the girls did about 20 stories a day on Instagram (@timpanys). I think in the lead up to any event, it is always a bit nerve racking but I needn’t have feared. We ended up have a large queue down the road.

Anyway, after the buzz of January, February is somewhat quieter. I’m not sure why this is – probably a glorious combination of terrible British weather and being rather between seasons. We always struggle slightly. When sales aren’t great, I try to focus on what we can do to improve the growth of the business in other areas. Therefore, our head of sellers has been tasked with finding new celebrity and high net worth clients for us to work with, and I have been checking out space in London for us to open a selling office.

Tips to take away:

Use the quieter time to explore different marketing and exposure avenues for brand awareness and credibility.

Finish any projects which you didn’t have time to look at in the busy period. This might be photoshoots, website updates, marketing collateral, social media scheduling.

Get involved in social media. As Antonia mentions, post as much as you can while you have the time for visibility and gaining online exposure.

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